V Taranath, ARO, Ex-Special Officer of BBMP Administrator
BBMP land worth Rs 300 crore was transferred illegally in South Bengaluru’s Kathriguppe
Khata scam exposed after BJP leader and ex-corporator NR Ramesh filed complaint with ACB
BENGALURU:
In a major development, four BBMP revenue officials, including the BBMP Administrator’s former Special Officer V Taranath, are in the dock after the state government gave the nod for an inquiry under the Prevention of Corruption Act into their alleged involvement in a Rs 300-crore khata transfer scam pertaining to government land.
Taranath was till last week working as a personal assistant to the BBMP Administrator and is currently posted as Assistant Commissioner (Administration) at the BBMP head office –one of the two posts which look into the civic agency’s administration-related work.
Apart from Taranath, the other officers facing corruption charges are M Lingaiah, Revenue Inspector (who was working as ARO, Hegganahalli), E Kanchana, ARO, South (Markets) and H Ramaiah, Revenue Inspector at the ARO (RR Nagar) sub-division office. The foursome are facing an inquiry under section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Acti, 1988.
The development is the result of a complaint filed by the BJP’s Bengaluru South president NR Ramesh, in his capacity as former corporator, with the Superintendent of Police (Bengaluru Central), Anti-Corruption Bureau, on November 13, 2019.
Complaint named housing society
In his complaint, Ramesh had stated that the officers had knowingly issued a khata for government land worth Rs 300 crore in South Bengaluru. The complaint was filed against 62 serving government officials and also against Bhavani Housing Co-operative Society.
Acting on Ramesh’s complaint, ACB sleuths had on March 14, 2016 sought permission to conduct an inquiry against the accused serving officials.
Meanwhile, BBMP’s South zone Joint Commissioner and ARO (Banashankari) conducted a survey and found that survey No 35 and No 36, S-Block Bhavani HBCS, Kathriguppe, Banashankari 3th Stage was BBMP property and was registered as owned by BBMP in the books on December 2020.
What is the issue?
As per the government order of April 23, 2021, a copy of which was accessed by TheBengaluruLive, T Devamma’s property at survey No 35 was transferred to Shrinivas Das on the basis of a sale deed on June 23, 2017. During the transition period, M Lingaiah was working as Revenue Inspector and V Taranath was working as ARO, as per their respective attendance registers.
Similarly, the property at survey No 36 was transferred from MD Jawarappa’s name to Gyanendra Kumar and Vani R Gyanendra Kumar on October 16, 2015. During this transition period, H Ramaiah was Revenue Inspector and E Kanchana was ARO as per the attendance registers.
Later, on March 10, 2020, BBMP’s Deputy Commissioner (Administration) Lingamurthy reported the scam to the state government after which H Panesh, Under Secretary (UDD, BBMP-2) gave the government’s nod on April 23, 2021 for an inquiry against all four BBMP officers under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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